Secret
by Devil Boy
Summary: As Chloe gets closer to uncovering Clark's secret, Clark discovers that Chloe has secrets of her own... Clark/Chloe
1. The Other Secret

Secret  
  
Chapter One: The Other Secret  
  
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"Mrs. Smith?" the intercom called in the middle of last hour history.  
  
"Yes?" Mrs. Smith answered. She rolled her eyes as she waited for an answer. Mrs. Smith was a good teacher, and she didn't like any interruptions in her class.  
  
"Can you please send Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang, and Clark Kent to the office?" came the reply.  
  
"Will do," Mrs. Smith informed. She didn't look too happy. It was common knowledge that Mrs. Smith hated sending students out during class. To Chloe, Lana, and Clark, she said: "Your homework for tonight is just to read pages 207 to 218 in your textbooks." As the three students stood up, Mrs. Smith continued teaching the rest of the class.  
  
In the hallway, they conversed about what they were being called to the office for. "I'll bet it's for Homecoming royalty," Lana commented.  
  
"Right," Chloe said, somewhat sarcastically and laughing a little. "Chloe Sullivan nominated for Homecoming Queen? Like that would ever happen."  
  
"Don't be so sure of yourself, Chloe. I think it's safe to say that you've definitely gained popularity over the years," Lana said. And it was true. It was their senior year in high school, and Chloe had become better known, as had Clark. The Torch had become more of a hit with the students recently, and Chloe was starting to become someone that everyone knew, and liked.  
  
"She's right, Chloe. Look at me, for instance. If that is what we were called up for, then would you expect me to be nominated either? I have to agree with Lana on this one. We've definitely become more popular," Clark stated. Chloe glanced at him. He was displaying his classic Clark Kent smile. She couldn't help but grin.  
  
"You seem rather sure of yourself," Chloe said. Clark didn't have a chance to answer, because they had reached the office door. Clark pulled it open, and they went inside. Waiting were two other girls, and three other guys, one of which being Pete Ross.  
  
"Great, you're all here," the secretary said. "Now as some of you have probably figured out, this is for the royalty for the Homecoming dance. You eight were the ones nominated by your class to represent senior class for homecoming this year. We will make an announcement in a few minutes making known that you are the nominees. We need to keep you here until then, and afterwards, Mr. Crawford will take you to the auditorium and explain everything to you."  
  
"See," Lana said, smiling. Chloe put on a grin of her own, still surprised. They sat down in the comfy chairs that the office offered, and soon, the announcement was heard over the PA system.  
  
"Attention students, the moment you've all been waiting for! We'd like to announce royalty for this year's homecoming! For freshman, Jacob Stiles and Anna Richmond. For sophomores, we have Mark Tiber and Jenny Bell. For juniors, the prince and princess are Chris Masters and Vicki Cartwright. And, for the seniors, Homecoming King nominees are: Vince Dudley, Clark Kent, Pete Ross, and Steve Underwood. The Homecoming Queen nominees are: Rachel Highland, Lana Lang, Emily Lucas, and Chloe Sullivan. Congratulations to all of you, and we hope to see you at the game tonight and the dance tomorrow night!"  
  
Afterwards, Principal Crawford, who had filled the position of Principal Kwan, brought the eight seniors to the auditorium and explained what they'd be doing. This was basically two things: they would need to be present at the dance, when the winner would be announced, and they would need to go to the gymnasium before their third hour to be in the pep rally. After his small speech he allowed them to go home, since the bell would be ringing in about five minutes anyway.  
  
Lana and Pete drove themselves home, while Clark and Chloe both got into Chloe's car. As she pulled out of the parking lot, Chloe said, "That was a surprise."  
  
Clark just smiled kindly and looked out the side window. Most of the drive was quiet, until Chloe said: "Clark, Pete told me your secret."  
  
Clark, who had been drinking from a Coke, started choking. "Clark!" Chloe cried, and pulled off the road. She stopped and started patting his back to try to get him to stop. When he finally did, she whacked him across the head. "You idiot! You scared me half to death," she said, and got back on the small road.  
  
"Sorry," Clark said. "What... secret... did Pete tell you about?" he inquired, hoping that his best friend hadn't squealed about his powers.  
  
"How you have a crush on me," Chloe answered, mildly. She kept her eyes on the road as she told him.  
  
Clark, glad that it wasn't his other secret, replied. "Oh. Yeah, I guess I'm over Lana..." he said slowly. Maybe he did wish that she knew the other secret instead. He knew Chloe liked him, at least she used to, but he didn't know if he could handle a relationship with her without messing up their friendship in the process.  
  
"Yeah," Chloe said. She had been brave enough to bring up the subject, but now she couldn't think of anything else to say without making it even more awkward. She knew he felt just as weird as she did, and she realized she shouldn't have said anything. "Well, here's your stop," she said, clearing her throat.  
  
"Thanks for the ride," he said. He grabbed his backpack and shut the door. He stood in the driveway and watched Chloe as she pulled away from the Kent farm and back onto the main road. He kicked the dirt softly, and headed up to his house.  
  
Meanwhile, in her car, Chloe was doing a lot of thinking. Even if we don't end up going out, she told herself, I need to tell Clark. I need to tell someone about my secret, and he's the most trustworthy person I know...  
  
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I hope you liked it, more should be up soon... 


	2. The Game

Secret  
  
Chapter Two: The Game  
  
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Chloe had just started on her homework when her phone rang. "Hello?"  
  
"Hi Chloe," came her answer, from none other than Clark.  
  
"Oh, hey Clark, what's up?" she asked, going back to her desk to try and do her math assignment while talking to him.  
  
"Are you going to the game tonight?" he asked.  
  
"I hadn't planned on it, but I should go to see Pete play. And to see Lana cheer," Chloe said. She put her pencil down and shut her math book.  
  
"I'll pick you up in ten?" he asked.  
  
"I'll be ready," she informed him, and hung up. She hurried to her closet. As much as she hated to admit it, she was still head over heels for Clark, and even though they were just going to the football game, as friends, she wanted to look nice. She changed into a pair of jeans and a light purple sweater - casual, but still tasteful. She put on a necklace and grabbed her small handbag, getting downstairs just in time to open the door for Clark.  
  
"Hi," she greeted cheerfully. "Just a sec." She went to the living room, where her father was reading the newspaper, and said to him: "Dad, I'm going to the football game with Clark. We should be back soon, but we might stop somewhere to get something to eat afterwards."  
  
"Okay, but don't stay out too late," he said, fatherly, and smiled as Chloe and Clark left. He was glad that his daughter was having fun, and that she was going out more often. He liked to see her happy, and she seemed so as she left.  
  
=¬  
  
Chloe shivered as she got into the passenger side of Clark's truck. "Brr," she commented.  
  
"It's getting chilly, isn't it?" Clark agreed. She nodded childishly as he started the truck up. He pulled out and headed towards Smallville High.  
  
"You never really said anything about what I mentioned earlier," Chloe pointed out to him after they had pulled into a parking space at the school.  
  
"What's that?" Clark asked as he pulled the keys out of the ignition.  
  
"Your crush," she said.  
  
"Well, I'm not doing to deny it. I have realized lately that you mean more to me then just being a friend," he blushed at that last sentence.  
  
She was quiet for a second. "Wow, Clark. I didn't know you felt that way," she said when she finally broke the silence. She looked at him. He was looking at his hands. He often did that when he was nervous. "Um. we should get out there," she suggested.  
  
"Yeah," he said. They got out and walked towards the football field. Most of the seats were already filled, since the game was already underway, but they found an empty space in the back corner of the bleachers. They sat down and were quiet for about twenty minutes.  
  
Chloe realized that she was going to have to make the first move if she wanted to take this anywhere. She was right about to cuddle up to him when the Crows gained a touchdown. Cheers were heard from the Smallville side, and the timing was no longer any good for Chloe to make her move. This happened once or twice more, and by the time the game was over, Chloe felt unaccomplished. She sighed as they stood up. She knew from the cheers that Smallville had won, but she had been so busy trying to get Clark to notice her that she hadn't paid any attention to the game. Solemnly, she followed Clark down to the ball field where Pete and Lana were standing.  
  
"You guys up for going out to Petey's for pizza?" Pete asked.  
  
"Oh, your pizza place?" Clark joked. It was a little game they always played, because Petey was Pete's nickname back in elementary school.  
  
"Yeah," Pete said. He was so happy to have won his game that he didn't even have a comeback for Clark.  
  
"All right," Lana said.  
  
"I'm in," Clark laughed. "Chloe?"  
  
"Sure," she answered, and they all drove to the teen hangout. They grabbed a booth by the big window. Clark and Pete sat on one side, and Lana and Chloe on the other. Chloe was sort of glad that she wasn't sitting next to Clark, but sitting across from him was just as bad. She couldn't believe that he had admitted to liking her, yet he didn't take notice of her.  
  
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I hope you liked it, more should be up soon. 


	3. The Email

Secret  
  
Chapter Three: The E-mail  
  
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"Are you ready to order?" a geeky teenaged waiter asked as he came up to their table.  
  
"Yeah, we'll have a large pepperoni pizza," Pete said. Chloe noticed that he was still smiling like a fiend, the victory for Smallville obviously stuck in his mind.  
  
"And to drink?" the waiter asked.  
  
"I'll have a Coke," Pete said.  
  
"Coke," Clark agreed.  
  
"Diet," Chloe said.  
  
"I'll take a Diet Coke, too," Lana said, and smiled. When the waiter left, she asked: "How does it feel to win the game, Pete?" Obviously she had noticed his never-ending smile as well.  
  
"Great!" Pete affirmed. "It's about time we won." He was right. This had been a bad year so far for the Crows. It was the first game they'd won all year.  
  
Lana, Pete, and Clark continued to talk until the waiter brought them their drinks. When he had left once again, Lana spoke up. "You've been awfully quiet, Chloe. Is something wrong?"  
  
"No, I'm just a little tired," she lied and gave them a fake smile. Just then, the pizza came, and they ate without much talk. After they finished eating, they began to pick up conversation again.  
  
Clark noticed that Chloe looked upset, so he said: "I better get going now, guys. Ready Chloe?"  
  
"Yeah," she said. Lana and Pete stood up so Clark and Chloe could get out. "Bye Pete. Lana," she said to them. Clark did the same, gave Pete half of the cost of the food, and they left the other two to finish the pizza.  
  
Once they reached the parking lot, Clark questioned Chloe. "What's really wrong?" He knew Chloe long enough to know that when she said she was tired, it was a cover-up for something else.  
  
"I'm just a little tired," she repeated. They had reached the truck, and she waited for Clark to unlock the doors. He did, and they both got in.  
  
"Okay," he said as he started driving. He decided not to push it. If she wanted to tell him, she would. They were just about to her house when she finally said something.  
  
"It's you, Clark," she said.  
  
"What did I do?" he asked in self-defense.  
  
"You know exactly what you did," she insisted.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.  
  
"I was trying to get you to notice me all night at the football game. I was scooting closer to you, trying to get right next to you, and you didn't notice a thing. I thought we established that we had feelings for each other, yet you won't acknowledge it."  
  
He looked at her. She was clearly upset. "I noticed it Chloe, but it's kind of an awkward position to be in when one of your best friends is sidling up to you and wanting to be. closer than you already are. I know that I said I wanted to be more than just friends, and I do, I really do, but I'm really nervous about it," he said.  
  
"You're right," she said. "It does feel weird. But we're never going to get anywhere if one of us doesn't do anything." By that time, they were at her house. Clark stopped the engine. They just sat there.  
  
Chloe guessed that they'd already shared that much, she might as well admit her secret to him... It would be hard, but she felt that it was now or never. And as she had said herself, they'd never get anywhere if they didn't say anything. But what she had to say was so irrelevant to what they had just talked about...  
  
She had to tell him though. "Clark, there's something that I need to tell you," she said. She turned to face him. He was looking at her. She realized that he had come up right beside her, and she hadn't even noticed, after she had been mad about him not noticing her do the exact same thing. Another thing she noticed was that his face was nearing hers. Oh my God, she thought. Her eyes flickered and closed and she moved her face towards his. They were just about to start the kiss that Chloe had been waiting for for so long when a bright light shattered the moment. They looked towards her house, where the yard light had just been turned on. The door opened, and Mr. Sullivan emerged.  
  
"Chloe, is that you?" he called.  
  
Chloe let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Yeah dad." And to Clark: "I'll see you tomorrow night."  
  
"Tomorrow night?" he asked.  
  
"The dance, genius. We're required to go, for one thing, and we're going as a couple, for another," she said. They hadn't made any plans beforehand, and Clark was all for going as her date.  
  
"Oh yeah. You'd better get going," he said, motioning to her dad.  
  
"Yeah. Bye," she said. She got out and hurried to her front door. Clark sat there for about fifteen minutes before finally heading home himself.  
  
=¬  
  
The next morning, Chloe woke up with a smile. She had a quick breakfast and headed to the school. Even though it was Saturday, she wanted to get some research done for next week's edition of The Torch.  
  
As soon as she got to the office, she logged onto a computer and got onto the Internet. She checked her e-mail, even though it was against school policy. She was feeling lively today, and the only other person in the school at the time was the janitor, anyway. She had five pieces of mail in her inbox. Four of them were just "credit reduction" and "free porn" offers that she deleted with disgust. The fifth, however, didn't have a subject, so she clicked it to see what it was. She read over the short page.  
  
Dear Ms. Sullivan,  
  
Your close friend, Clark Kent, has a big secret that he's hiding from you. And in all actuality, it's connected with the secret that you have. Since you're such a "super-reporter," I'll let you figure it out on your own.  
  
Chloe stared at the typed words. How could anyone know about her secret? Clark was the only person she had come close to telling. She checked to see whom the e-mail was from, but, impossibly, it didn't say who had sent it.  
  
How can Clark have a secret like mine? she thought. She printed the e- mail, put the paper in her pocket, and logged off the computer and went straight to the Ross's.  
  
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Is it getting good? Hope so! More soon, I promise! Also, please check out my Smallville website. It's not the best, but I think it's pretty good so far. Thanks.  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/welcometosmallville 


	4. The Confrontation

Secret  
  
Chapter Four: The Confrontation  
  
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On the way to Pete's house, Chloe went over what the e-mail had said. A secret like mine... Is he somehow linked to the meteor rocks? A freak of the week, just another someone that should be on my Wall of Weird? Thoughts rushed through her brain, trying to figure out his secret. Suddenly, she began to realize the small details about him that she never wanted to see... how he was so weird when he got his class ring, how he was always near the place the fires started a few years back, how he always missed the bus but got to school before it did... there were so many things that she had tried not to notice.  
  
Chloe sped up, bits and pieces of information moving around in her reporter- mind. She had so many questions when she finally got to Pete's. She stopped the car and got out. Pete was sitting under a tree doing homework.  
  
"Pete, we need to talk," she said. She stood above him, hands crossed, eyes focused.  
  
He looked up. "This looks serious," he said, and offered her to sit down. She refused, so he set his paperwork and books aside and stood up. "What's so important?"  
  
"I know that Clark has a secret, and I want to know if you know anything about it," she stated, determined to find out.  
  
Pete obviously wasn't expecting it, because his eyes grew relatively wide and he was at a loss of words.  
  
"I'll take that as a yes," she said. "Tell me." She wasn't going to let this get away.  
  
"About him liking you, yeah. I'm the one that told you, remember?" It was clearly a cover-up for something big. Pete, the guy who never, ever got nervous, was nervous, proving that there was something he wasn't telling her.  
  
"There's something else," Chloe said.  
  
"I don't know what you mean," Pete said.  
  
"I got an e-mail saying that Clark had a secret," she said. She purposely left out the part about her own secret. Sure, she was going to tell Clark, but she didn't want too many people to know. She was conservative like that. She probably shouldn't even tell Clark, but she needed to lose some of the stress and pressure involved, and Clark was the own to help with that.  
  
"Did you print it? Let me see," he said. He held his hand out, waiting.  
  
"No," she lied. She had been lying a lot lately, she noticed. "I was in too much of a hurry. Just tell me what you know."  
  
"I don't know anything," Pete stated. If she pressed him much more, he might break, and Clark would never forgive him.  
  
"Fine," she said, and went back to her car.  
  
"Chloe," Pete called after her, but she was intent on getting to Clark's house to question the source himself.  
  
=¬  
  
"Hello Chloe," Mrs. Kent greeted the girl at her door.  
  
"Hi Mrs. Kent, is Clark home?" Chloe asked.  
  
"Yes, he's up in his bedroom," she said. "Come on in."  
  
"Thanks," Chloe said as she stepped into the small Kent farmhouse. "Is it okay if I go up and see him?"  
  
"Go right ahead," Mrs. Kent smiled.  
  
"Thanks again," she said. She slowly walked up the stairs to Clark's room. His door was open, and he was facing the opposite way and talking on the phone.  
  
"She what?" Clark asked, shocked.  
  
"Talking to Pete, I presume," Chloe spoke up. Clark turned around.  
  
"Uh, Pete, I gotta go. I'll call you later," he said. He hung up the phone and moved towards Chloe. "Hey, what's up?" He tried to act cool, but Chloe noticed a small amount of sweat forming on his forhead.  
  
"So. Clark," she said coolly. She took a seat on his bed. "How 'bout we talk about your little secret?"  
  
"You're not acting like yourself, Chloe," he said.  
  
"I know. Back to the subject at hand, though."  
  
"What are you talking about?" he asked. She pulled the printed e-mail out of her pocket and tossed it to him. He read it quickly and looked back up at her. "Who sent you this?"  
  
"I don't know. It was anonymous," she said.  
  
"What's your secret?" Clark asked.  
  
"I asked you first," she said.  
  
"How can it be anything like mine?" he asked.  
  
"You tell me," Chloe said. Her eyes twinkled.  
  
"I guess I'll have to. But..." Clark said.  
  
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I thought that would be a mean place to leave off, so that's where I left off. Lol. You'll find out Chloe's secret in the next chapter, I promise.  
  
Also, please check out my Smallville website. It's not the best, but I think it's pretty good so far. Thanks.  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/welcometosmallville 


	5. The Revelations

Secret  
  
Chapter Five: The Revelations  
  
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"But what?" Chloe asked.  
  
"Follow me," he said, somewhat glumly, and led Chloe down the stairs. In the kitchen, he found his parents at the table. "Mom, dad, we need to talk."  
  
=¬  
  
After Jonathan and Martha had looked over the e-mail, Martha said: "I think your father and I need to have a word alone." Clark nodded and he and Chloe went outside.  
  
"Jonathan, we have no choice. She already knows, and it says right on that paper that it's something likes her secret, whatever that may be. And obviously, she knows what her secret is, and we can't make anything up about Clark without her realizing it," Martha said.  
  
"I realize that, but damn it, Martha, everyone's going to know about him before we know it," Jonathan swore.  
  
"Pete's already proved that he won't say anything, and I'm sure we can trust Chloe to do the same. And if she's going to know about Clark, she's going to have to let us know what her secret is. If she's been affected by the meteor rocks... Oh, I don't know Jonathan. We have no choice," she repeated.  
  
He was obviously going to say something else, but upon better judgment, he didn't. "You're right," he sighed. He called the two teens back into the kitchen. "Chloe, if we tell you about Clark, you have to promise us that you'll never tell anyone about this."  
  
"I won't," she said.  
  
"And you'll have to tell us what you've been hiding as well," he added.  
  
"Yes," she agreed.  
  
"Okay. Clark, do you want to take it from here?" Jonathan asked.  
  
"Wait, let me tell you mine first," Chloe said.  
  
=¬  
  
"Nobody knows about this," Chloe said, as if second-guessing herself. "Okay... when I was about ten, my class had a field trip to Smallville. I don't remember where we went, I just remember going to a park afterwards to play. Anyway, I only had one good friend that I was with all the time, and she was absent that day, so I was playing alone in the sandbox. Then this kid who was really mean to all the girls came up to me and said, 'Come and look at what I found.' Since he seemed to be being nice to me, I followed him really far to the side of the park where there was a big hole in the ground. It was surrounded by 'Do Not Enter' signs and was blocked off by construction tape. He said that the thing he wanted to show me was at the very bottom of the hole and I had to lean to look at it. So I leaned over, and he pushed me. I fell through the tape and into the hole. I heard him laughing and when I looked up, he was looking down at me. He had a rock in his hand and he threw it at me. I ducked and it hit this big pipe that was running through the hole. I don't know how the rock managed to, but it cracked the pipe, and green water started seeping out of the crack. He got kind of a scared look on his face and he ran off."  
  
She stopped for a minute. Obviously talking about it was hurting her. "If you need to stop, honey, it's okay," Martha said.  
  
"No, I'm okay," Chloe said. She took a deep breath and continued. "So the water started rising, slowly at first, but then the crack got bigger and the flow started getting faster. The opening of the hole was too high above me and the walls were too steep for me to get out of. Nobody came to look for me, because they figured I was just off playing somewhere. When it was time to leave, about an hour later, the water had risen to my chin. I was crying so hard, and I had screamed so loud, but since the hole was so far away from the playground part of the park, nobody could hear me. I found out later that the bully had lied to the teacher about knowing where I was, for fear of getting in trouble. They looked for me, and it didn't take them too long to find me, but of course I had been down there for an hour. The teacher managed to reach down far enough to pull me out, and I was soaked. It turns out that the water was green because some meteor rock had clogged up the pipe and it infected the water. That's also why the construction was being done."  
  
Chloe took another deep breath. This time she waited longer to start up again, and nobody said anything to her. But she finally did. "Since I was okay, besides being scared half to death, the teacher didn't call anyone about the hole, except to say that the pipe was leaking. He never said that I had been exposed to the water. So nobody ever looked into it. The water... it changed me. It made me have powers. I'm just like a freak of the week. That's really why I created my Wall of Weird, to try and find someone that had received the same effects from the rocks as me."  
  
"What kind of powers are you talking about, Chloe?" Jonathan asked.  
  
"I don't know. It's not very often. Just short bursts every so often. Once, I was running in middle school at gym, and everyone was getting really far ahead of me, so I ran as fast as I could and it was unbelievable. I passed them all once, and I almost passed them again, but it was time to go change out of our gym clothes. None of the girls wanted to believe it; they just pushed it out of their minds and said it never happened. And another time, I was concentrating really hard on the TV, and I swear I saw into it for a split second. But these things only happen once in a while, and not for very long when they do."  
  
Clark and his parents looked at each other. "Chloe, I think you need to hear Clark's story now." Martha said. Clark slowly started telling Chloe everything.  
  
=¬  
  
When Clark finally finished explaining everything to Chloe, she was in shock. "Oh, wow... You have the same powers that I have, but you can control them," she said.  
  
"How do you explain it though? You obviously didn't come here in any spaceship. How could you get powers like mine?"  
  
"It must have been the rock," Martha said. "Every one has had different effects. This one must be really different. It would help if we could look at it."  
  
"I know where it is! The mayor has it. I remember reading about it in the newspaper. But I don't know how we'd get to it," Chloe said.  
  
Jonathan, who had been relatively quiet, said: "I know how we can get it."  
  
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So you know Chloe's secret. And NO, she's not an alien; her powers ARE from exposure to the kryptonite. You'll find out in a later chapter how it's possible that she could have powers like Clark. I promise it won't be stupid and have Chloe become Superwoman or something like that. I'll try to make it believable (well, as believable as anything Smallville can be.) I won't make the reason so farfetched. You'll just have to keep reading to see if I make it turn out okay. I hope you like this, I know it's far off from anywhere Smallville would ever go, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to write about.  
  
To T Penn: I don't really know much about Homecoming because I haven't gone to any Homecoming games or dances or whatnot. At my school though, they announce the nominees only a few days before the game and the dance. (Which was last week.) I don't know about the thing about attending the game, but I think my school announces the winners at the dance. But thanks for your input anyway, I'm glad you paid enough attention to notice that stuff! Thanks!  
  
  
  
Also, please check out my Smallville website.  
  
http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/welcometosmallville 


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